Rule Setup

Control

Purpose

The Rule Tree

The Rules are displayed in an expandable and collapsible tree in the upper left portion of the Rules window. In the example in Figure 1 the tree has only one branch (System) and two sub-branches (Control Label and Min. Charge).
You can change the order in which the Rules are listed in the tree via the right-click popup menu, as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2: The Right-Click menu

By using the Move Up and Move Down menu items you can sort the tree as desired.

Show Inactive Rental Rules

Check this box to display any inactive Rental Rules in the Rules tree.

[Add]

Click [Add] to add a new rule to the tree. System Five will present the dialog shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3: The New Rental Rule dialog

Type in the name for the new Rule and click [OK]
The Name is limited to 20 characters.
You can also Add Rules from the tree by right-clicking on the tree and selecting Add from the popup menu, as shown in Figure 4:

Figure 4: The Right-Click menu

[Remove]

Click [Remove] to remove the currently selected Rule from the tree. If the [Remove] button is disabled, the currently selected Rule has been used and therefore cannot be removed.
You can also Remove Rules from the tree by right-clicking on the tree and selecting Remove from the popup menu, as shown in Figure 5:

Figure 5: The Right-Click menu

Active

This check box controls the Rules status. Only Active Rules are considered by System Five. The ability to make a Rules Inactive provides a method of hiding the Rule when it is no longer required. You cannot remove a Rule once it has been used.

Note: Only one Rule of each Rule Type can be Active within the System or Sub Category branches at any given time.
In order to create a new Rule of a specific Rule Type, you must make any existing Rule of the same Type Inactive within each Tree branch.

Name

This box contains the name of the Rule. The Name is limited to 20 characters. You can modify the name as required. It is important to note that when the Rule Type is Min. Charge, the text entered here will be used as the Minimum Charge description wherever rates are displayed, such as in the Inventory Edit window, Rent Scheduler window and rental In/Out Time Entry window.

Sub Category

This control provides a method of selecting a specific Sub Category for a Rule. By using this control, you can create general rules that apply to the majority of Rental Parts and then create special case rules for entire Sub Categories. The background of the Sub Category control appears in grey, this indicates that you cannot type in the control, you must use the ellipse button on the right to open the Sub Category selection dialog. The [Clear] button allows you to remove the Sub Category selection completely, in which case the Rule would automatically become a System wide rule.

Rule Type

There are 3 Rule Types to choose from, as shown in Figure 6:

Figure 6: The Rule Types drop down

Regular: The Regular Rule Type refers to a general rule that applies to the Rental Rates.
Min. Charge: The Min. Charge is simply that, a single minimum charge as an amount.
Depreciation (% of Charged): The Depreciation as a % of Charged rule provides the ability to setup automatic depreciation for your Serialized Rental Units.
The Depreciation Rule will depreciate a Serialized Rental Units as a percentage of the price charged on the Rental line of the Invoice. For example, if the Customer is charged $20 for renting an item, and the depreciation rate is set to 10% for the item, depreciation will be recorded for $2. See Inventory - Rental Rates tab to define the depreciation percentage.

Calculation Type

Note: Once a Rule has been used, the Calculation Type can no longer be edited.

There are 2 Calculation Types to choose from, as shown in Figure 7:

Figure 7: The Calculation Type drop down

One Rate: The One Rate calculation type provides a single Rental Rate that is used to calculate all Rental charges, regardless of the length of the rental.
Multiple Rates: The Multiple Rates calculation type is the legacy method in System Five. This is the calculation style that has been used by System Five since the inception of the Rentals module. In this calculation type, you can specify as many Rates for as many different periods as you desire. This method offers great flexibility and power, but it is also considerably more work to maintain than the much simpler One Rate method.

When editing the Calculation type, the following message appears.


For example: if an item is rented out today and the rates changed tomorrow, the invoice would use today's rates throughout the life of the rental term. Likewise, if you have a rule established as one-rate today and then next week change to use
the multi-rate that any invoice created before, the rule change would use the one-rate again for the life of the invoice. In other words, the out date of the rental item would determine the rates & the rule for that invoice.

Do not use in this Sub Category

(Applies to the Min. Charge and Depreciation (% of Charge) rules within specified Sub Categories only)
Use this option to disable a System Rule within a specific Sub Category.
Example:
Assume that you have created a System rule for a Min. Charge, but you have a specific Sub Category in which you do not want a Min. Charge enforced.
By creating a Min. Charge rule in that specific Sub Category and checking this option you have instructed System Five to ignore the System rule for Min. Charge and to not show the Min. Charge rule for this Sub Category.
This effectively removes the Min. Charge rule from the Sub Category.